[title type="h5"]Thursday, September 18, 2014.
The Mud Animal. Spiced Lamb At Annadele.[/title]
Mary Leigh is heading out to her job at the pastry shop when she turns around, returns inside, and tells me I have to come out to look at something. She points to something that looks like a cat, down on its haunches, covered with mud. "I thought it was Twinnery, but I'm not sure," she says. I can't make a positive ID either, until I get closer and see that it is indeed our oldest pet, an orange-tabby-and-white cat, born at the Cool Water Ranch some fifteen years ago. He has outlived all of his brothers and sisters, battling snakes, rabbits, and mice to an undefeated record. But the way he looks this morning, he may be on his ninth life.
He was stunned and shivering. I put my hand under him to pick him up, and I was glad to see that he made no protestations. meows. I see no blood, cuts, or dislocated appendages. But the mud is unbelievable, covering him from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. I fetch a bucket of warm water. He doesn't like being wet down, but he doesn't try to get away. He seems barely conscious. I change the water several times, but then he has his fill of my ministrations. Moving at ten percent of his usual pace, he slides under the deck, where nothing can get to him.
That cinches it. I will stay home to do the radio show today. Twinnery is my special buddy and must be taken care of. When the radio show ends, I find him basking in the sun on the deck. He has managed to dry himself out from the dousing I gave him, but there's still a lot of mud in his fur. And he still acts dazed. He walks without a limp, but haltingly. I am going to take him to the vet, but he seems enough better that I just keep an eye on him.
I puzzle about what might have happened to him. Hit by a car? No evidence of that. Attacked by another animal? We have raccoons, opossums, deer, and a variety of snakes. Rumors of coyotes are abroad, but nobody around here has seen or heard one. In any case, Twinnery shows no signs of a battle with anything. Except, possibly, a malevolent human. But at happened overnight. He was fine last night when we got home.
I try to get him inside for the night, but at dark, he heads into one of his many lairs in the woods and disappears.
Mary Ann and I have dinner at Annadele Plantation. It's too long since we dined there, and because I ad lib a few commercials a week for the place, I need to keep my bank of impressions well supplied.
Denise, our favorite waitress, is off tonight. I remember her from her days at the extinct Lakefront restaurant La Cuisine. She is what I like in a waitress: a sparkling personality, with smiles outnumbered only by laughs, and well-researched opinions on what she serves. I guess a guy could have these qualities, too, but there is something qualitatively different between male and female servers.
[caption id="attachment_43905" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Fried tomatoes with crabmeat at Annadele Plantation.[/caption]
First course: turtle soup for me, fried green tomatoes for Mary Ann. She says she doesn't really like fried tomatoes of any color. I don't either. Now jumbo lump with a ravigote or a white remoulade on a ripe slice of tomato--now that's something.
Then a house salad. For some reason, the kitchen wants to serve this on a plate so small that the lettuce inevitably falls off the sides and onto the table. I ask the waitress to put this into a dish twice this size. Whose idea was this?
[caption id="attachment_43908" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Spiced lamb chops with garam masala.[/caption]
The entree eclipses everything else about this dinner. It's billed on the menu as "Spiced lamb." After inquiry, I find that this is lamb chops with a sauce seasoned with garam masala. That's probably the most common seasoning blend in India, with what Americans think of as the taste of curry.
I can't think of garam masala without recalling the cover of the first edition of my cookbook. The publisher used stock photography to good effect. But in a photo of seasoning herbs and spices, a can on the table clearly says "garam masala." Not exactly a staple of Creole or Cajun cooking. We edited that out in the second edition.
Back to tonight's food. I get three two-bone lamb chops are grilled to the crusty edges I like. But the sauce! It was a thickish blend of a few bases, with the garam masala standing front and center. A tremendously enjoyable flavor, with no small amount of pepper. It's so good that, when I get home and start in on tomorrow's Menu Daily, I add Annadele's spiced lamb to the 500 Best New Orleans Dishes, with four stars yet.
A great new dish seems to me more newsworthy than yet another in the endless series of "Chefs To Watch For Some Reason" articles we see in every food periodical. I can't get out of my mind the knowledge of all the superb food I've had from unknown and perhaps departed chefs who spent more time thinking about taste than rankings in the next awards show.
[caption id="attachment_43907" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Smoked shrimp on savory cheesecake.[/caption]
Dinner is not finished. Mary Ann had an appetizer for her entree. Interesting idea: savory cheesecake on the bottom, with a puff pastry crust. On it were smoked shrimp, mushrooms and onions in a well-made veloute. This is like something out of an old-style French restaurant, but since we don't have many of those anymore, it's welcome.
[caption id="attachment_43906" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Annadele's bread pudding.[/caption]
Annadele's kitchen makes a very good, light bread pudding, with an exceptionally fine sauce. It pushed me way over my usual limit.
Best moment of this dinner: Mary Ann says, "I'm enjoying these special dinners we've had lately."
When we get home, Twinnery is not to be found. This would be normal, but in his current condition. . . well, I wake up at four in the morning and can't get him out of my mind.
[title type="h5"]
Annadele Plantation. Covington: 71518 Chestnut St. 985-809-7669. [/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris September 25, 2014 10:01 in
